The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) has today published a Sustainability Statement, setting out its commitments to becoming an environmentally sustainable regulator and the actions it plans to take in support of these commitments.
Chief Executive and Registrar of the HCPC, Bernie O’Reilly, commented:
“The HCPC has today published our statement on environmental sustainability, which outlines the actions we will take to minimise our impact on the environment. All organisations have a part to play in protecting the environment, reducing their carbon footprint, consumption of resources, and their waste and the HCPC is no different. I look forward to working with our stakeholders including suppliers, employees, and registrants, to achieve these goals.”
Chair of the HCPC, Christine Elliott, commented:
“To tackle immediate and predictable future challenges, a focus on sustainability is needed now: sustainability of the HCPC as an organisation, sustainability of professional regulation which protects the public, and the wider role of healthcare in the sustainability of our planet. This Statement reflects our commitment towards all of these forms of sustainability, and resonates with NHS England’s Greener Allied Health Professional work.”
Environmental Sustainability Statement - The Health and Care Professions Council
The HCPC aims to be an environmentally sustainable regulator by minimising negative impacts on our environment. We will improve our environmental sustainability by working in partnership with our employees, communities, registrants, service users, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
Vision
HCPC’s vision is to be a high performing, adaptable and caring regulator that ensures public protection through strong, evidence-based regulation.
Purpose
Our purpose is to promote excellence in the professions we regulate and champion high-quality care that the public can access safely and with confidence.
Goals
We have as one of our goals to build a resilient, healthy, capable and sustainable organisation. This goal is underpinned by our values of being Fair, Compassionate, Inclusive and Enterprising.
Our values underpin what we do and how we do it, to help us operate to high standards and effectively as a regulator and employer.
Commitments
HCPC will work with employees, communities, registrants, service users, suppliers, and other stakeholders to deliver the aims set out in this policy statement. In particular, we will:
Organisational
- Meet applicable compliance obligations, where possible, looking to exceed these requirements on a voluntary basis that is aligned with our environmental emissions targets.
- Commit to the continuous improvement of our environmental sustainability performance.
- Provide the necessary resources and support for the initiatives and programmes designed to deliver our sustainability commitments.
- Source goods and services through our procurement activity in ways which support and reflect HCPC’s environmental commitments.
Engagement
- Promote a culture in the organisation that embeds sustainability as a core organisational goal.
- Provide training and support to enable delivery of our sustainability commitments.
- Engage our employees and stakeholders to raise awareness of, and foster support for our sustainability commitments.
- Engage with HCPC suppliers in respect of their sustainability performance in support of HCPC’s targets and ambitions.
- Make this statement publicly available and keep it updated.
Actions that we will take in support of these commitments include:
- Achieve carbon net zero in our direct operational energy emissions by 2028-29;
- Develop energy management practices to reduce or eliminate dependency on fossil fuels.
- Continue to reduce consumption of resources and emissions through analysing practices and implementing changes to operations and business-related travel.
- Support employees in more sustainable work and travel patterns.
- Ensure that our procurement and contract management policies and processes align with and enable delivery of HCPC’s sustainability targets and commitments.